1. A girlfriend of mine lives alone and sleeps with a butcher knife under her pillow, because: burglars. Awhile back, her new cleaning lady found the knife under the pillow and brought it into the kitchen to be washed, no questions asked. It was then that my friend knew she would keep the cleaning lady forever and ever, amen.
2. A sign you are getting older: when you and your girlfreeens are getting ready to go out and someone adds "pluck chin hairs" to the list of preparatory to-dos.
3. Last week, I was able to go on a short walk and discovered that the roses had bloomed while I was in bed. My neighbors are especially fond of roses, so every home has buffets of them lining the lawn. I was tempted to walk up into their yards to sniff-sample each variety, and was delighted to find one home with a bush hanging over the sidewalk. I must have stood at that bush for five minutes, drinking in every fragrant bloom.
4. My little brother and his wife are the only of my siblings with a front yard, so they are the first to carry on our family's Christmas tree --> Easter cross tradition.
Doesn't it look great?
5. I went to church last Sunday. I told you that already, but it was such a glorious experience, I had to tell you again.
6. One afternoon last week I was lying in bed feeling rather achy with longing. I longed to exercise, to play, to socialize, to dance, to work full time, to go to school full time, to travel, to find and marry a good man, to have babies, to eat chocolate and pasta and enchiladas and drink coffee thick with cream. All the longing swelled and caught in my throat and I was tempted to have a good pity party. Living with all those unsatisfied desires can make me feel like I've gotten the short end of the stick. But then I had a revelation:
I wouldn't have desire if the object of that desire didn't first exist. I wouldn't long for chocolate, for example, if cocoa beans-turned-to-chocolate didn't exist. We have so many desires because the world is full of so many objects of desire. Everywhere we look, God has created people, things, and opportunities that awaken deep longing because they are good and beautiful. And isn't it marvelous that God filled the world with so many glorious things when he didn't have to?
Isn't it marvelous that he made coffee beans, and taste buds, and white sandy beaches, and music, and mountain springs, and endocrine systems, and hands for holding, and eyes for gazing, and hearts for loving, and bodies for procreating, and minds for learning?
God's generosity is lavish, and our desires can be reminders of all the dazzling gifts he didn't have to put in the world but did. I think this means that our desires, unsatisfied though they may be, can ultimately be celebratory signposts pointing to God's goodness. Some of us just happen to get extra regular signpost-reminders. ;)
Happy Thursday, friends of mine.
Cheering for you, Home Skillets.
-SJ
P.S. Thank you for all your prayers. I haven't seen any improvement yet, but I'm relieved to have so many people pleading for healing on my behalf.
© by scj